Results 501–520 of 822 for speaker:Robert Walter

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 8 - Adoption support agencies (13 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I beg to move amendment No. 2, in page 7, leave out line 17. I suppose that the amendment is probing. The paragraph that I seek to delete contains a catch-all phrase—an Uncle Tom Cobbleigh phrase—that covers anyone else who happens to be thought of at the time. The clause is about adoption support agencies and defines bodies that should not be regarded as such. Subsection (2) lists...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 8 - Adoption support agencies (13 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, which highlights the fact that we do not have sight of the regulations, so we have no idea what will provide for the exemptions. The Committee should have guidance on the subject. All that the explanatory notes say is that there will be power to introduce such regulations. I object to catch-all phrases in legislation that give Ministers the power...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 8 - Adoption support agencies (13 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: Surely, we could amend the Bill when legislation to create another statutory body is passed.

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 8 - Adoption support agencies (13 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I am not particularly comforted by the Minister's response. I thank the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy for his intervention and for pronouncing the name of my constituency correctly—at least he does not call it Dorset, North, as some do. To return to the thrust of the amendment, I am not especially happy with the Minister's response. I understand that the Department of Health...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 4 - Assessments etc. for adoption support services (13 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I hate to labour a point that I have made in previous sittings, but the clause does not extend to Scotland. What happens to a child from a Scottish local authority? Will the Minister be able to make regulations that affect Scotland?

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 4 - Assessments etc. for adoption support services (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I want to make a related point without returning to this morning's discussions about geographical definitions. The Bill relates to England and Wales. In Wales, the Children's Commissioner for Wales has a certain advocacy role. Just by chance I happen to have the Children's Commissioner for Wales Act 2001 in front of me. Section 4(5) refers to ''complaints or representations made to the person...

Sex Discrimination (Amendment) (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the Sex Discrimination Act 1975; to make provision with respect to discrimination concerning the provision of goods, facilities, services and access to governance by private member clubs; and to continue to permit wholly single-sex clubs and sporting events. I welcome the opportunity to present another Bill to outlaw...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 120 - Scottish restriction on bringing children into United Kingdom (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I am interested in the Minister's remarks. Will she enlighten the Committee as to whether, as the Bill amends Scottish legislation, the Scottish Parliament will have the power to amend it to its original meaning?

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 87 - Overseas determinations and orders (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I am lost for words. I am grateful for the Minister's assurance that, although my relatively straightforward wording is not immediately acceptable, a similar form of words will be introduced as a Government amendment on Report. On that basis, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 86 - Section 85: supplementary (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: The hon. Lady is correct that law is often made on the basis that it relates to England and Wales. However, my understanding is that when the Bill is enacted it will say not only that it ''extends to England and Wales only'' but that ''The following extend also to Scotland and Northern Ireland'', after which there is a list of sections. The Bill makes provision for territories that are...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 86 - Section 85: supplementary (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: The hon. Gentleman has made an interesting suggestion. I do not feel competent to answer his question. Perhaps the Minister can do so—

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 86 - Section 85: supplementary (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I thank my hon. Friend for that clarification. It is a matter of fact that all primary legislation for England and Wales is made in the House as primary legislation for England and Wales. Through my amendment, I seek to draw out some concept of what prospective adoptive parents would think, given boundaries that they might not recognise. They would recognise Scotland and Northern Ireland, of...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 86 - Section 85: supplementary (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: As I said at the outset, I tabled a probing amendment. The Minister has responded, although not necessarily to my absolute satisfaction. She reiterates that someone habitually resident, let us say, in Scotland cannot apply to a court in England for an adoption order. That is an unfortunate consequence of several historic occurrences, but we cannot rectify it under the Bill. The Minister has...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 87 - Overseas determinations and orders (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I beg to move amendment No. 169, in page 47, line 28, leave out 'colony' and insert 'British Overseas Territory.'. I fear that it is my turn again. The term ''colony'' seemed to be shouting out at me when I read clause 87. In British law, that term obviously goes back quite some time. We are still on the subject of definitions: perhaps we should get them right. If my understanding of...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 85 - Annulment etc. of overseas or Convention adoptions (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: The Minister made a number of interesting points in her deliberations on the amendments. The most interesting was that the provision exists in the Adoption Act 1976 but it has never been used. That is a good reason to question whether we should repeat the phraseology in subsequent legislation, particularly given that we introduced a central authority under the Adoption (Intercountry Aspects)...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 85 - Annulment etc. of overseas or Convention adoptions (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: Yes, the Minister is correct. It does say ''the recognition of an adoption''. However, I feel that the recognition of an adoption, once granted, should not be annulled. If all the legal procedures required in two contracting states to the convention have been gone through to secure that recognition, it seems to me, to use the term in article 24 of the convention, to be ''manifestly'' unfair...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 86 - Section 85: supplementary (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I beg to move amendment No. 168, in page 47, line 19, leave out 'England and Wales' and insert 'the United Kingdom'. The amendment relates to my confusion over the area to which we refer when we make adoption law. I have been here before, and I see that the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy is present. I do not seek to prevent him from leaving the Room. When we discussed the Children's...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 86 - Section 85: supplementary (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I am grateful for the hon. Lady's intervention. In my understanding, the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the constituent parts being England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. As a consequence of devolution, some powers may have been devolved to the National Assembly for Wales—although the clause refers to England and Wales—some to the...

Public Bill Committee: Adoption and Children Bill: Clause 86 - Section 85: supplementary (11 Dec 2001)

Robert Walter: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I regard the United Kingdom as a country. If the hon. Gentleman wants to define it as a state as opposed to a country, that is a matter for his judgment. However, I shall continue to refer to it as one country. I say that as someone who is Welsh by birth and regard myself as a Welshman, especially when a rugby match is taking place. For the...


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